Time & Again
by midnightephemera
Summary: When a Time-Turner gets overpowered, Hermione and Ginny find themselves hurled back five years through time. Can the duo change the timeline for the better? (AU from the end of Chamber of Secrets)
1. This Time, Again

_Author's Note: I am not J.K. Rowling. The Harry Potter universe and all of it's characters, etc. are not my creation - I'm just happy enough that we get to play in her world and have fun. Some quotes may be taken directly from the Harry Potter series, I take no credit for them._

_So yes, this is yet another travel back in time story, but I hope to make much of the content as original as possible. I've read many, __**many**_ _fan stories but haven't come across the pair of Hermione and Ginny together being the heroes much at all. This story is __**definitely**_ _alternate universe; so please don't fill up my private messages or reviews saying "it didn't happen like that!". My aim with this story is to deviate quite a bit from the books, but there will of course still be some familiar plotlines and quotes._

_Enjoy!_

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><p><strong>Chapter 1 - This Time, Again<strong>

They were dead.

Harry, Ron, Neville, Luna, Hagrid, all the Weasley's. There were too many to count, too many to list.

Hermione wanted to grieve them all. She wanted to crawl into a corner somewhere in the giant castle around her to cry and hopefully get rid of the all the horrible images that she had seen in the past hour; but she couldn't. She had to keep on running.

She had to find some way to escape.

Voldemort, Tom Riddle, he should have been the last one to die. Harry had defeated him with the Elder Wand, she had seen it for herself. The Dark Lord had been splayed out across the floor, and people had been cheering, celebrating the end of the war between Light and Dark.

_No one else was supposed to die!_, she thought. All of the Horcruxes had been destroyed, she thought, even the one in Harry that they hadn't known about.

It made no sense, and yet it did.

They had missed one. It was the only explanation she had for how the fragment of Voldemort's soul had left his body and flown into the nearby form of Theodore Nott, who had returned to the castle with a small group of Slytherins. Everyone had their guard down, and no one expected the seventh year who had fought on the side of the Light to raise his wand at Harry and kill him.

She had to keep moving.

Soon, the Death Eaters in the Great Hall would know that she'd escaped, and she was sure they would be looking for her. This was her only chance to get away and find some safety; the invisibility cloak around her was her only tool. Her wand had been taken from her early in the hours that she had been forced to sit on the cold, stone floor next to Harry's body, as the remaining Death Eaters tortured and killed more people in front of her.

She had endured the pain of hearing and seeing everyone she cared about die, ready for Death to come for her as well, until she caught the shimmering material of the cloak in Harry's pocket out of the corner of her eye.

She needed to make it out of the castle somehow. The way they had gotten in through the Room of Requirement was out, as was the main entrance; it was too heavily guarded. Hermione wished that she had the Marauder's Map with her, or that she had taken the time to remember one of the secret passages out of the grounds.

A quiet, painful moan from under a nearby pile of debris caught her attention and she froze. It was a girl's voice, and a familiar one at that.

_It couldn't be…_

Hermione carefully inched her way through the mess of wood and stone on the ground, but nearly lost her balance when she saw who it was.

"Ginny?"

The redhead's eyes shot open at the whisper that sounded close. She moved her head as best she could to try and find the source, laughing a bit at herself when she couldn't. "I'm losing it… I'm laying here dying and I'm losing my mind…" she mumbled.

Hermione quickly looked at the large stone pillar that was trapping her friend, and immediately knew that it was going to be a problem. The girl's legs were definitely broken, and there was a large piece of wood sticking out of her side. She held in a painful gasp and forced herself to breathe before parting the hood of the cloak right above Ginny's face.

"You're not losing your mind Ginny… it's me."

Ginny jumped a bit, as much as she could anyway. For a moment, Hermione was worried as her friend's face was frozen with shock. "Her- Hermione?" she asked quietly, barely breathing.

Hermione nodded, trying not to cry. "It's me."

The redhead groaned and coughed wheezily. "Please tell me I'm not seeing things… I really don't want to go like this."

Hermione's heart ached, seeing how much pain the younger girl was in. She slipped her hand out from under the cloak and placed it on her cheek. "Real as can be. How did you… ?"

Ginny coughed again. "One of Voldemort's minions grabbed me and wanted to take me off somewhere private. He wasn't particularly smart," she said slowly, closing her eyes again and taking shallow breaths. "I got his wand off him and managed to send him flying down the hall there, but I managed to blast this pillar down on top of me too…"

Hermione sat down in the rubble next to her friend and gently laid the other girl's head in her lap. "I'm so sorry Ginny… we failed you, failed everyone…"

Ginny felt a few tears fall onto her cheek and shook her head as best she could. "No… you guys did more than anyone did, or could. Don't…"

A coughing fit cut her words off, and Hermione could only look down at the pained face of her friend, helpless to do anything. More tears fell from her eyes as she once again was being forced to watch someone she loved and care for die. She didn't know how much more of this she could take…

In the next moment she jumped and instinctively covered Ginny's head with her body as a bright flash of orange and yellow sparked out of no where next to her. Her panic that they had been found left almost immediately as she heard a familiar melodic tune. She carefully looked up to see a phoenix standing on the toppled pillar looking directly back at her.

"Fawkes?"

The majestic bird nodded and trilled a few notes before butting it's head against the item next to it. Hermione was now the one thinking that she was seeing things; it was the Sorting Hat. Hadn't she seen it burning in flames on top of Neville's head earlier? How was it here now?

Instinctively, she reached out to grab the old and weathered hat, looking at it for a few moments before she got the urge to put it on.

_I see Fawkes has taken to carrying me around again…_

Hermione gulped anxiously before calming herself down. "How are you…"

_Still here? Yes yes, you __**are**_ _the smartest witch of your age Miss Granger. Suffice it to say that one cannot truly destroy me. I exist because of the magic in the school, and therefore I see and hear all. I simply exist._

"Then, you know what's happened."

_Indeed. A dark time for our school, but not the end._

Hermione's heart jumped a bit. "What do you mean?"

_Headmaster Dumbledore was fond of a saying that was used many centuries before his time. Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it. I can give you the help, but what you do with it is up to you…_

She felt a thud at the top of her head, as if something metallic had materialized inside the Hat.

_I'm sure you know what to do with this. Now go, before you no longer can. Just promise me one thing Miss Granger; come see me again._

Hermione sat there for a moment in deep thought before carefully taking the Hat off of her head. She had to react quickly to stop whatever the Hat had given her from falling onto Ginny's face, but once she held it in her hands, a small smile began to break out across her face.

"What is that?" Ginny asked faintly, trying to keep her eyes open.

"Our ticket out of here," Hermione answered. Working quickly with the very familiar Time-Turner she extended the golden chain out to it's maximum length, making sure that it wrapped around Ginny's neck as well. "I really hope this works…" she muttered just under her breath as she began to turn the hourglass the correct direction.

She had just finished turning the device a few dozen times and was about to let it do it's thing, when the red flash of a spell whizzed over at her and hit the hourglass square in the center. Hermione looked up in a panic as she saw two Death Eaters approaching her from the direction she came, and urged the Time-Turner to work. It was their only shot at surviving.

Hermione sighed in relief as saw the familiar reversing of time around her and Ginny. What she didn't expect though, was the growing sensation of a tugging at her very core as the scenes around her started flashing by faster and faster. She felt like she could barely keep herself from falling over, even though she knew she was still seated on the ground.

The constant pressure and dizzying view eventually caused her to faint, and she welcomed the quiet darkness that enveloped her.

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><p>Hermione awoke with a start, sputtering a little as she felt the last bits of a foul-tasting potion sliding down her throat. She could feel her eyes wide open as she coughed a little and tried to figure out where she was. A familiar voice, one that she hadn't heard in over a year, got her attention.<p>

"It's alright, Miss Granger, it's alright. You're just in the Hospital Wing dear…"

Hearing Madame Pomfrey's voice calmed her a little, and she started to relax into the bedding she felt under her. Her mind was running a kilometer a minute though. How was she in the Hospital Wing? The last thing she remembered was turning the Time-Turner back a day, maybe a day and a half, but she hadn't been anywhere near the school's infirmary in that time.

Hermione glanced around slowly and realized that she was indeed in the Hospital Wing, Madame Pomfrey looking down at her, a bit of concern on her face. She was about to ask the nurse what had happened when she caught sight of someone else nearby at the side of her bed. The person's hair color was a familiar and bright shade of Weasley red, but it took Hermione a few moments to realize that the young girl was Ginny. A much _younger_ Ginny than the one she had seen what felt like just moments ago. Looking down at herself quickly, Hermione realized that she was younger as well.

Starting to understand what must have happened, Hermione held back a groan and looked back over to Madame Pomfrey.

"Sorry… guess I just got startled."

The older witch smiled warmly down at her. "Nothing to worry about dear. I myself would probably be frightened after waking from being petrified... Now you just stay right here and relax for a few moments while I go check on the others. I'll be back to check on your vitals so we can see about letting you off to the feast soon…"

Hermione waited for the nurse to walk a few steps away before she scrunched up her eyes and rubbed at her forehead as she did some quick thinking. She was being hit with a rather large sense of deja vu, remembering the Madame saying nearly exactly the same thing almost five years ago, when she had been petrified by the basilisk from the Chamber of Secrets. She had been sent back **five** years?

She stopped for a moment and looked over at Ginny, wondering if it was just her, or the both of them that had been sent back.

"H- hi Ginny. What are you doing here?"

Ginny looked over at her brown-haired friend with an exasperated look. "I'm here because you brought us here from the future, I'm assuming…"

Hermione sighed in relief, glad that she had someone to talk to about the situation. "Sorry, didn't know if you'd come back with me or… Shit…" she muttered quietly, rubbing her temples slowly.

Ginny looked amused for a moment; it wasn't often that you heard Hermione Granger swearing. "Shit's about right," she said quietly, looking around to make sure they weren't being overheard. "How'd we go back five years Hermione? I'm guessing that wasn't exactly your plan."

The older girl shook her head. "It wasn't. I was trying to go back a day, but that spell that hit the Time-Turner must have overcharged it or something like that."

"That was a Time-Turner? I thought we broke all of those during the fight at the Ministry?"

Hermione looked over at the other girl. "You don't remember seeing Fawkes back in the ruined corridor?"

Ginny stared at her friend for a moment. "I must have missed a bunch back there, I was getting pretty weak and tired."

Checking again to make sure that no one could overhear them, Hermione quickly filled her in on her quick conversation with the Sorting Hat and how she had gotten the temporal device from it. Both girls got quiet as they tried to make sense of everything that had happened to them in the last little bit. Hermione's hand moved up to her neck to see if she could feel anything under her robes, but there was nothing here.

"The Turner is missing," she said quietly. "What if someone saw it and took it off me before they revived me?"

Ginny shook her head. "I don't think it came back with us. First thing I remembered after blacking out was sitting here watching you, and I've been here about two hours. I'm really glad I didn't have to sit through Harry explaining what happened down in the Chamber to my parents and Dumbledore again…" she said, shivering a little. "That wasn't fun."

"What about the Invisibility Cloak…"

Hermione trailed off as she saw the smile on Ginny's face and her hand patting her robe pocket. "Nearly tripped over it when I was pacing earlier."

Both girls heard the clicking of the nurse's heels returning their way, which stopped Hermione's next question. The two looked to each other as Madame Pomfrey returned to the small sectioned-off area, and Ginny nodded quickly as if saying they would have to talk later.

Pomfrey smiled over at Ginny as she took her wand out of her robe pocket. "Still here Miss Weasley? I didn't realize that you and Miss Granger were such close friends."

Ginny bit her lower lip as she watched the nurse wave her wand over Hermione's bed, trying to figure out how to answer that. It was true; in the past timeline she hadn't really been too close to Hermione, Ron and Harry until Dumbledore's Army in her fourth year.

"I just wanted to make sure that Hermione was okay," she said quietly, remembering how she had felt before and trying to play the part.

The madame finished her analysis of the runes that had appeared over Hermione's head and looked kindly at the other girl. "I know you must be feeling guilty dear, but you must remember that what happened was not your fault, alright? That wasn't you."

"Now," she continued, "I don't see anything amiss with either of you at the moment, other than needing a good meal. I'm told the feast downstairs is still going strong. I'm sure all your friends would like to see you. Miss Weasley, I believe your parents are still here and waiting outside. Don't worry, I think I've convinced them that you should remain here at the school until the end of term."

She nodded thankfully to the nurse and looked over to Hermione with a smile. The two left the room a few minutes later and Ginny was almost immediately scooped into a hug by her mother. Hermione saw the embarrassed look on her friend's face and smiled a bit, trying not to remember having watched Mrs. Weasley die what seemed like only hours ago.

The older lady that Hermione had come to befriend over the past few years soon turned to her and held out her hand. "Hermione, I'm so glad you're alright. You must have been scared out of your wits..."

Hermione accepted the offered hug and took a moment to compose herself before answering, reminding herself to act and speak the age that she was. "I was okay, Mrs. Weasley, really. I figured out what the basilisk was and was ready for it. I'm just glad that no one was really hurt."

Molly looked from the young girl to her own daughter and smiled a little. "As am I. Ginny, are you sure you don't want to come home, at least for tonight?" she asked worriedly.

Holding back a sigh, Ginny simply nodded and looked down at the floor. "I'll be okay Mum, honest."

Seeing the unsure look on Molly's face, Hermione piped up. "I'll keep an eye on Ginny, Mrs. Weasley. We were starting to become good friends at the start of the year before everything started happening."

Ginny was about to retort that she didn't need a babysitter before she stopped herself, realizing that Hermione had just given them the perfect excuse to spend time together over the next few days, time that would be needed to discuss what had happened and what to do. She smiled warmly over at her friend, and that seemed to seal the deal for her mother.

"Alright dears. I'll be heading home then. Ginny, if you need anything, I'm only a floo call away... "

After one more hug for each girl, Molly turned around and started making her way back to the Headmaster's office. Hermione and Ginny followed slightly behind her for a time as they made their way down to the Great Hall for the feast. Before they got to the last flight of stairs that led into the entrance hall, Ginny felt a tug on her arm and saw that Hermione was heading towards the empty Charms classroom.

With the door firmly closed behind them, both girls sighed loudly as they looked at each other.

"This is going to be difficult…" Ginny said, breathing out slowly. "I almost gave Mum an attitude there like I have this whole past year. Damnit… I'm not even a teenager anymore."

Hermione smiled sadly and shook her head a bit. "We're _both_ going to have some trouble acting the part."

Hopping up and sitting on top of a desk, Ginny looked over herself for a few moments before sighing again. "We're stuck here, aren't we…"

The older girl nodded and sat down next to her friend. "Unless we find some way back, but I wouldn't even know where to start." Both of them grew quiet in contemplation for a bit.

"I don't even want to go back." Hermione continued quietly.

"I don't want to lose them all again…"

Hermione saw the tears in her eyes and wrapped an arm around her shoulder comfortingly. "We won't let that happen this time."

Ginny looked at her in confusion. "I thought you weren't supposed to change a timeline? Didn't you say once that things could like, blow up?"

Hermione smiled. "That only happens if two or more of yourself are in the exact same spot for more than a few minutes, or if a version of you sees another version and doesn't realize what's going on."

The redhead groaned and shook her head. "I already have a headache…"

"Don't worry," Hermione said through a giggle, "we'll be okay. There's only one version of us here right now, though that's another mystery of the Time-Turner that I'd like to figure out. As for the not changing the timeline? Screw it."

Seeing the surprised look on Ginny's face, she went on. "We have a chance to change the course of the whole war Ginny! We can save so many people with what we know, and make sure that when Voldemort comes back, we can kill him for good much earlier."

Ginny shivered. "When he comes back again? Why not just stop him from getting his body back during the Triwizard?"

Hermione grimaced. "Trust me, I'd like nothing more than to spare Harry that particular scene, but if we don't let him gain a body then, the information we know now won't help us. He'd find another way, and he has plenty…"

She went on to explain to Ginny what Harry had started with Dumbledore in sixth year, and what the trio had been looking for the past year. By the time she was finished, Ginny had a pale look on her face.

"He split his soul into _seven?_ That's… " she broke off, shivering at the thought. "So there are six of these Horcrux things out there?"

"Five, since the diary is already destroyed in this timeline. But,"

Ginny looked over at her friend and noticed that she was agonizing over something. "What is it?"

Hermione bit her lower lip before looking over. "I think Harry was Voldemort's seventh Horcrux," she said quietly.

The redhead grew pale as she digested that information. "How… are you sure?"

The other girl nodded. "Harry got a memory from Snape and saw it alone in Dumbledore's pensieve. I think that's why he went out into the forest alone, to face Voldemort and make sure that he could eventually be killed. I don't think Voldemort ever meant to make Harry a Horcrux that night in Godric's Hollow."

Ginny shivered and teared up a bit. "So he's going to have to do it again, in this timeline. He's going to need to die again?"

Hermione wrapped an arm around her friend and squeezed a little. "He'll survive just like he did last time, and we have five years to figure out if we can remove it another way. Have faith Ginny, we know a lot more than we did before."

The younger girl sniffled a little, then nodded her head. "We'll save them all this time…"

"Yes we will," Hermione answered.

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><p><em>Thanks for reading! Please favorite, follow and review - even if you want to call me out for a bad plot or bad writing. (I promise, I can take it!)<em>

_-Midnight_


	2. 1,798 Days

_Author's Note: I am not J.K. Rowling. The Harry Potter universe and all of it's characters, etc. are not my creation - I'm just happy enough that we get to play in her world and have fun._

_Enjoy!_

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><p><strong>Chapter 2 - 1798 Days<strong>

A pair of chocolate brown eyes blinked as they continued to stare up at the top of her four poster canopy bed. Ginny sighed, rolling over to one side to try and get more comfortable. Sleep was just not coming to her tonight. There was too much on her mind, too much to think about.

She was sure everyone else in the castle around her was fast asleep. The impromptu feast that had started in the Great Hall after she and Harry had safely returned from the Chamber of Secrets had gone into the wee hours of the morning, just like in the previous timeline. She and Hermione had gone down to celebrate with the rest of the school, even though both had wanted nothing more than to curl up in their beds and even left alone to process what had happened to them in just the past few hours.

It had been nice to see the Great Hall back to normal instead of blasted apart with a hole in its side and debris everywhere. The sight of all the students and teachers happy and safe was a comfort as well, though Ginny had found it hard to keep the image of so many of them injured or dead out of her mind while she picked at her food.

Percy had been a right pain, as usual. Ginny was sure that their mother had read him the riot act along with her other brothers, for not paying attention and looking out for her over the course of the year. He was definitely channeling Molly Weasley as he watched her with a worried look and made about a half dozen comments about her needing to eat more. Ginny was pretty glad to see her brother again after all the time that he had shunned his family, but even still, he was much more pompous and annoying than she had remembered.

Ginny had stayed up with the rest of Gryffindor House until Hagrid had returned some time around three in the morning. It was a testament to her general state of tiredness that she didn't really notice how much people had been looking at her strangely or talking about her until she crawled through the portrait hole into the common room. She frowned at the sudden drop in noise as people stopped conversing to look over at her, walking past everyone and up the stairs to her dorm room. Even her fellow first year roommates were giving her a wide berth of space, not coming up to bed for a long while.

Sighing once more, she gave up on trying to sleep and slipped out of her bed. Grabbing her bathrobe and wand from her bedside table, she quietly made her way out of the dorm and down the staircase into the common room.

Ginny headed toward one of the comfortable armchairs near the fireplace and curled up in it, conjuring a blanket for herself without much of a thought and staring at the unlit embers. She jumped a bit at hearing a voice behind her.

"You must have as much as on your mind as I do…"

Turning and peeking over the top of the armchair, Ginny looked around and finally saw Hermione leaning against the wall in a small windowed alcove. Her form was lit slightly from behind with the first purple and pink hues of the morning's sunrise.

"Merlin's saggy bottom, you scared me!"

Hermione tried to hold back a laugh but found herself losing the battle. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. Hearing that come out of your supposed eleven year old self is pretty amusing though..."

Ginny grinned as she watched Hermione take a seat on the nearby couch. "Oops. Caught me there. I should probably be careful with what spells and stuff I use too…"

"You can't sleep either?"

"Not a wink."

Hermione frowned and nodded slowly. "I know the feeling. There's just too much to think through."

The two grew quiet for a few minutes, and eventually Ginny tore her eyes away from the spot on the wall she'd been studying. "So where do we start?"

A quiet sigh preceded Hermione's answer. "Loaded question there, Ginny. There's a bunch we need to do this summer, but we can't really do any of it until we're out of here in three weeks. I'm somewhat glad that we don't have to worry about taking the exams this year…"

Ginny blinked and looked over at Hermione. "Are you sure you're Hermione Granger? Not wanting to take a test? Are you feeling well?" she asked incredulously.

Hermione scowled playfully back at her. "So maybe the last year of not _having_ to study changed me, or maybe it's because we've already done it once before…"

"What's first on the list then?"

"Finding a way to free Sirius."

Ginny quirked an eyebrow. "Not destroying a horcrux?"

Hermione shook her head. "We have some time to get on those, and we're going to need Sirius' help with two of them. Slytherin's locket is hidden away at Grimmauld Place, and Hufflepuff's cup is in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at Gringotts."

Ginny thought about this for a moment. "Smart. Since that psychopath was a Black, Sirius can claim her vault because she's a convicted Death Eater."

"Exactly. If we can get Sirius free, it'll help us in the long run. Plus, we'd get Harry away from those horrible relatives of his."

A small smile crossed the redhead's lips as she thought about that. It would be nice to not have to see Harry go through any more bleak summers at Privet Drive. He always got morose at the end of the school year, and it had taken him a few days each year after leaving there to become his normal self.

"That would be really good Hermione. I wasn't liking the idea of seeing Harry have to go there again. I'd think Dumbledore would have something to say about it though."

Hermione frowned. "He'll have to live with it," she said bitterly. Seeing the quizzical look on her friend's face, she continued. "Dumbledore is _not_ someone I want knowing about our situation."

Ginny frowned, trying to sort out what she had just heard. "Hermione, this is _Dumbledore _we're talking about; you know, Leader of the Light, Order of Merlin, Chief Warlock… plus he's wicked smart. He'd be able to help us for sure."

"He _is_ smart, too smart even."

Seeing that Ginny was waiting for more of an answer, Hermione sighed and went on. "I think, no I _know_ that Dumbledore has been interfering with everything and everyone related to that stupid prophecy." Her ire at the Headmaster seemed to grow with every word. "He's had his fingers in everything, making sure that the prophecy came true. Ginny, everything he did for Harry was getting him ready to have to die."

Ginny sputtered a bit, shock on her face. "Wh- what do you mean?"

Hermione leaned forward in her seat, resting her elbows on her knees and rubbing her temples. "It was all there for me to see before, I should have seen it then," she started. "He had to have known about the Horcruxes all along, or at least that Riddle could have made them. Why else would have have put Harry with the Dursley's for all those years, even after he turned eleven? Sure, there was the whole blood magic that his mother was able to protect him with, but he could have been just as safe here at Hogwarts all that time. There were plenty of 'Light' families that could have taken him in, or even one of the professors Ginny. Those blood wards weren't the only answer, but Dumbledore was being narrow-minded about everything. The only thing that mattered to him was to make sure that the prophecy came true the way he figured it was supposed to, and for that he needed to make sure he was controlling Harry, all so he could engineer the ending that was playing around in his head."

The younger girl still showed no emotion on her face as she stared at Hermione. "He was raising Harry to be what - a martyr?" The full implications started to hit home. "He wouldn't do that, would he? Condemn a one year old boy to a horrible family for years and…"

Hermione nodded sadly. "And only tell him what was going on when he couldn't hide it any longer. Remember all those times that Dumbledore finally gave Harry the information he was looking for? I'm sure it was because the old goat figured that he couldn't stop Harry from finding out himself. He didn't want to lose Harry's trust, because he needed it for the very end."

The famous Weasley temper was starting to show as Ginny's face darkened and she started sputtering. "That's… that's just _wrong_... " Her words were quiet, but Hermione could hear the hurt and anger in them. The younger girl looked up at her. "Are you sure? I mean, is there a chance you've got it all wrong?"

Hermione let loose a long breath and sat back for a moment to think. Part of her was annoyed at the question, wondering if perhaps the other girl didn't trust her judgement, but she shook that away. It was to be expected; anyone who had been influenced by Dumbledore in the past would feel an allegiance to him. "I guess it's possible," she allowed. "I could be overthinking it all, but there's just too many damned coincidences…"

Ginny sighed loudly, shrinking back further into her seat. "I believe you Hermione, I just wish you were wrong is all."

"Me too."

The two sat quietly for along while until Ginny spoke up. "I have an idea."

Seeing that she had Hermione's attention, she went on. "Sirius is the key to most of our pressing problems at the moment, right? If Dumbledore wants to continue getting his way, then wouldn't he try to do something to keep Harry from living with his godfather? Last time worked out for him with Sirius still being a fugitive. We need to make sure that he's free legally this time around, so that he can claim guardianship over Harry."

She took a deep breath and went on. "One thing that always struck me odd was that no one ever mentioned to Harry that his family was an old and well off one."

Hermione looked at her and frowned. "_How_ well off?"

Ginny bit her lower lip. "Very. There have been generations of Potters, even more than the Malfoys. My guess is that Dumbledore had everyone under his thumb to keep it quiet for whatever reason. Probably some version of 'not burdening his life any further than it already was'," she said with a scowl.

The older girl sighed. "He had all that available to him, and yet he had to continue living with those wretched Dursley's every summer, barely having enough to eat and wear hand-me-downs that definitely didn't fit him."

Ginny looked over and saw the emotions on her friend's face. "You really care for him, don't you…" she said quietly, halfway between a question and a statement.

Hermione nodded. "Not in _that_ way, but yes, I do. Harry's like a brother to me. He and Ron were the first real friends I ever had. I care for him, you know?"

The redhead nodded. "I get it," she said with a smile. "There's something about Harry that makes him so… I don't know, huggable. Like you don't want to let him go off and do all the crazy things he does."

The two girls giggled over that for a moment, before Ginny continued. "My only questions is why Sirius wouldn't have told Harry about his family, he surely knew."

Hermione thought on this for a moment. "Sirius wasn't his best after escaping Azkaban, not by far. He was shut up with Dementors for over a decade, then a whole year or more on the run before he stopped and settled in at Grimmauld Place. He never got to go to St. Mungo's or see a Healer after all that he went through. If Dumbledore wanted to, it would have been easy to do any number of spells or charms on him. You're right Ginny, we need to make sure Sirius is free and clear, but how do we make sure that happens?"

Ginny grinned and pointed upwards. "We have the proof right upstairs. We just need to make sure that he doesn't get away this time."

_Scabbers… _Hermione thought. They did indeed have proof enough that Sirius Black hadn't been the one to kill Peter and all those Muggles, or betray the Potters to Voldemort.

"Okay. We just have to make sure that the old goat doesn't find some way to ruin it."

"I have an idea for that too," Ginny said. "Susan."

It took Hermione a moment to realize what she was getting at. "Of course. Her aunt is the head of the DMLE still. Let's see him try to get himself out of _that_," she said darkly. "Now we just have to figure out how and what to tell Susan to get her aunt to come up here."

Ginny nodded. "Have to do that carefully. If we want to keep the time traveling quiet, then all our actions and explanations from here on out have to be believeable."

She crossed her arms across herself for a moment, then undid them, looking down. "That's going to take some getting used to..." she said, scowling at herself.

Hermione tried not to laugh, understanding what Ginny meant. She was having a hell of a time getting used to her older, no - _younger_ self again. It was the strangest feeling, thinking that she was in the body and figure that she had had before, but not really, not anymore. "I know what you mean," she said. "We're going to have to go through puberty all over again. It's going to take a while to get used to this."

Ginny grumbled. "I don't _want_ to get used to this body. I just want my figure back; I worked hard on it along with all that Quidditch training." That brought on another thing to grouse about. "Ugh! Quidditch! It's going to be at least two years before I'll get to play on the house team again."

The older girl frowned sympathetically. "Ooh, I didn't realize that either. I'm sorry - I know how much you love to play." She leaned back in thought for a bit, mulling over something in her head. "What if there _was_ a way for you to play?"

"What do you mean? Oliver's not going to let a second year take one of the Chaser's spots, not when Angelina, Katie and Alicia are all still here."

Hermione smiled widely. "There's nothing stopping us from putting together some sort of recreational league though..."

Ginny's face brightened considerably. "That would be amazing! I know there's a bunch of people who want to play some friendly games, but they'll never get picked for their house teams."

"I know, and it would help you keep in practice as well as get you noticed by the Gryffindor team early. I wouldn't mind giving it a try myself…"

Ginny looked skeptical. "Are you sure that the time travel didn't mess something up? Hermione Granger wants to fly on a broom for _fun?_"

Hermione stuck her tongue out but grinned along with her. "I never really had anything _against_ flying, other than wanting the time to study and being afraid I'd get hurt. With everything that's happened I'd like to think that I've gotten over that particular fear, and it's not like we'll have to do much studying for a long while."

Ginny took in what she said and nodded. "Fair enough, and of course I'll help you out with it." She frowned for a moment. "Won't we have to ask Dumbledore about doing something like that though?" She wasn't quite sure what the policy was for starting a new club at the school.

Hermione did though. "We ask either the Headmaster or Deputy, and we need to have a staff sponsor. I'm sure if we ask Professor McGonagall she would allow it, especially if we mention that it would be good practice for future Gryffindor teams."

The two giggled a little bit at that; their Head of House's fervor when it came to winning the Quidditch Cup was next to none. It was quiet again for a time, until Ginny sighed loudly. "It's going to be a long way back to that day we got sent back…"

Hermione stood up and walked back over to Ginny's seat, sitting partly on the armrest. "1,798 days, but we're not going back to that place Ginny. It'll be a better once because we're going to make it so."

Ginny leaned closer to her and smiled, putting her hand on top of hers and squeezing it. "Of course you counted," she said cheekily. "It is a long time, but we have a whole lot to accomplish."

* * *

><p>It was a good thing that classes were cancelled for the whole day as an additional school treat, as the exams were. Because of the late night feast, there weren't that many students or faculty awake at the usual breakfast time. That was good news for the kitchen house elves, most of whom were also sleeping it off. Hermione and Ginny were finally able to relax enough to fall asleep sometime well after the sun was up fully in the sky, though both were up in time for lunch in the Great Hall. They both had agreed that they should get the ball rolling as soon as possible on their plan to free Sirius, and they needed to approach Susan sometime that day.<p>

They had thought long and hard on how best to accomplish their task before going to bed, and it wasn't goign to be easy. What was a plausible way to convince the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to visit Hogwarts?

They didn't have use of the Marauder's Map at the moment, which was currently in Fred and George's possession. Neither of the girls thought that it would be a good idea to try and get it from the twins or as them for it; there would be too many questions that they didn't want to answer. Using Crookshanks as an answer wasn't possible either, as the kneazle cat was still in the store in Diagon Alley, waiting to be adopted. There was no real explainable way for the two of them to know that Scabbers the rat was in fact an Animagus, so they would have to come up with something sneaky.

Thus, the two-pronged plan was born. They would try to get Sirius freed, and at the same time test what reaction Dumbledore would have.

Deciding that staying anonymous for the time being was the best option, the two had written a short note on parchment that they would hopefully have Susan owl off to her aunt. Hermione had worked some magic on the parchment, placing some spells that covered up their magical signatures and changed the handwriting so that it didn't look anything like theirs. They had taken care to use language that neither of them often used, and Hermione also placed a variation of the notice-me-not charm on the note so that anyone that wasn't Susan or Amelia Bones would think it just a short letter a niece was sending to her aunt.

The two girls ate a hasty lunch at their spots at the Gryffindor table, wanting to be ready to leave as soon as Susan did to be able to follow her. Once out of the Great Hall, Hermione quickly cast a Disillusionment Charm over the both of them and caught up to Susan as she was headed back to the Hufflepuff common room. With a careful motion, Hermione used her wand to silently maneuver the note through the air and fly in front of Susan's path.

Susan jumped as she saw the note, but warily plucked it out of the air and started reading it.

_I don't know about you, but perhaps a certain Ministry official who you have_

_family ties to might be interested to know that the basilisk under the school  
>is not the only monster the Headmaster has neglected to find. <em>

_There is a particularly vile rodent about that isn't what it seems to be._

_-A friend._

Both Hermione and Ginny held their breaths as they watched the other girl look around suspisciously and think for a few moments before turning on her heel and making her way in the direction of the Owlery.

Once they were sure that Susan was long gone, they both sighed loudly and looked at each other. Only time would tell if their plan would work.

The game was afoot.

* * *

><p><em>Thanks for reading! Please leave reviews or PMs on what you think about where the plot is going, I really do want to read them. Yes, there is and there will be a bit of Dumbledore bashing in this story, but that doesn't mean that he can't be shown the error of his ways and become a better person. We'll have to see about that. <em>

_As for the pairings for the girls - for now I have them slowly getting back together with Harry and Ron, but who knows where things will end up? Fate is a fickle thing. ;)_

_-Midnight_


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